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“Food is something that we gather around”: Foodway Practices among Arab Americans in Columbus, Ohio

Rearick, Nicole Anne
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1243529334

Abstract Details

2009, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Comparative Studies.
This is an ethnographic project on foodway practices among Arab American women and men, who live in the greater Columbus, Ohio, region. These women and men primarily are students at The Ohio State University or are affiliated with the University, but some have no direct connection at all. Foodways are an important area of study with multiple facets to be attended to and I have chosen to focus my attention on four central suppositions regarding foodways. These suppositions are: foodways can oftentimes be seen as a point of and for social contact; one may use foodways as a vector for spreading cultural knowledges; one may use foodways as a possible way of expressing her or his identity; and a person may view foodways as providing a tangible (and tasty) way to remember the past and one’s ‘home.’ I suspected that these four outlooks regarding foodways would possibly be more prevalent and more crucial when looked at within an immigrant community compared to other types of communities residing in the United States. I collected this data by conducting semistructured interviews over an eight month period. I accumulated interviewees by utilizing the snowball technique and found a core group of about five women. The interviews regarded food choice, food preparation, social aspects of foodways, traditions, acculturation, but mostly the four abovementioned conjectures. The data collected from this project’s interviewees illustrates that the men and women interviewed do uphold the four hypotheses of foodways put forth by myself but only to a certain extent. The data from my interviews with select members of the Arab American community in Columbus, Ohio suggests that foodways, for this group, can, at times, act as a space for and of sociality; the people involved with this project do use foodways, at times, as a means of spreading cultural knowledges and communicating values; foodways can provide the respondents of this project with a means of identity expression; and foodways can act as a holding area for their memories which get released whenever the interviewees taste, smell, or discuss foodways.
Maurice Stevens, PhD (Advisor)
Amy Shuman, PhD (Committee Member)
Joseph Zeidan, PhD (Committee Member)
Folklore
Food; Women; Bonding; Arab American; Folklore

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Rearick, N. A. (2009). “Food is something that we gather around”: Foodway Practices among Arab Americans in Columbus, Ohio [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1243529334

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Rearick, Nicole. “Food is something that we gather around”: Foodway Practices among Arab Americans in Columbus, Ohio. 2009. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1243529334.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Rearick, Nicole. "“Food is something that we gather around”: Foodway Practices among Arab Americans in Columbus, Ohio." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1243529334

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1243529334
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.